‘Better Call Saul’: Nacho Is a ‘Samurai Without a Master’ Stuck Between Fring and the Salamancas (Video)

“There’s something that binds them together,” Michael Mando tells TheWrap about Nacho and Gus Fring’s relationship

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 4, Episode 2 of “Better Call Saul”)

Nacho may have a new boss in Gus Fring, but as fans of “Breaking Bad” know, it’s not exactly the cushiest gig.

“This is a samurai without a master,” Michael Mando, who plays Nacho Vargo on AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” tells TheWrap of Nacho’s mindset this season.

The conclusion of Monday’s episode of “Better Call Saul” sees Gus Fring’s men take out Arturo, one of Hector Salamanca’s guys, in an ambush. The episode ends with Fring telling Nacho that he knows exactly what he did last season, when he swapped out crime boss Hector Salamanca’s medication after he has a heart attack. Fans of “Breaking Bad” will remember that Hector is wheelchair bound by the time Walter White (Bryan Cranston) comes around.

Mando continues that he and Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) have a common bond — both despise Mark Margolis’ character — though you wouldn’t know it by the way Gus acts. “There’s something that binds them together. But strangely, that’s something that Gus isn’t acknowledging.”

“I know what you’ve done,” Fring tells Nacho at the end of Monday’s episode, adding that the Salamancas don’t. “You’re mine.” While we don’t know exactly what that means yet, it appears Fring may now have a mole inside the Salamanca operation. “It feels very much like man vs. corporation,” Mando continues. “This is a man who does not want to be part of this world. That both parties see as an asset, and they’re tearing him apart.”

The reason Nacho is doing all of this is all because Hector wanted to use Nacho’s father’s upholstery business as a front to smuggle his drugs, which causes a rift between father and son. Mando says that fear for his father’s safety is what drives the character to put his own life at risk.

“I care more about my father making it [out alive] then I do about myself making it,” says Mando, when asked if he’s worried that since Nacho is never seen in “Breaking Bad,” it means he doesn’t make it out alive in “Better Call Saul.” But from the moment Nacho switches out Hector’s pills at the end of season 3, “I understand that my life is in jeopardy.”

Watch the video above for more from Mando.

“Better Call Saul” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on AMC.

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